The present invention claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 10-145314 filed May 27, 1998, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system and a charging method therefor and a recording medium recorded with a control program therefor and, particularly, to a charging method in an information providing system for providing an information from an information providing terminal to a mobile information terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional information providing system of the above mentioned type, a mobile information terminal and an information providing terminal are connected through a network and a pay information sent from the information providing terminal through a cable circuit to the network is sent to the mobile information terminal through a radio circuit. In such system, a user (owner) of the mobile information terminal is charged correspondingly to an amount of pay information every time the pay information is sent from the information providing terminal to the mobile information terminal. The pay information may include an electronic mail, news, an information of new music and/or concert and a stock information, etc.
In the conventional information providing system mentioned above, in which the mobile information terminal is connected to the network through the radio circuit, when the user (owner) of the mobile information terminal enters into a building or a tunnel, there is a possibility of dropping of a communication between the information providing terminal and the mobile information terminal. When such communication drop occurs between the information providing terminal and the mobile information terminal before the mobile information terminal receives a complete information, not only does data received before the communication drop become meaningless, but also the user (owner) of the mobile information terminal can not see the data itself as well.
Further, when a re-transmission of data from the information providing terminal to the mobile information terminal occurs due to any communication drop therebetween, the user (owner) of the mobile information terminal is charged too much compared with an amount of data actually received by the mobile information terminal since the charging is performed according to the amount of data transmitted by the information providing terminal.
Further, in a case where an information such as news is to be obtained on the side of the mobile information terminal, it receives the information from the information providing terminal regardless of whether or not the news are necessary on the side of the mobile information terminal, causing a circuit to be confused.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information providing system and a charging method therefor, which can reduce a waiting time up to a time at which a user can read an information as well as a load of a network and can charge according to an amount of pure data transmitted from the information providing terminal to a mobile information terminal, as well as a recording medium recorded with a control program therefor.
An information providing system according to the present invention, in which a mobile information terminal having a function of displaying an information on a screen by utilizing a radio wave and an information providing terminal are connected to each other through a network, comprises ciphering means provided in the information providing terminal, for ciphering a notice information body to be provided to the mobile information terminal, notice means provided in the information providing terminal, for notifying the mobile information terminal of an item of the notice information and the notice information body ciphered by the ciphering means, request means provided in the mobile information terminal, for requesting the information providing terminal to send a deciphering key of the notice information corresponding to the item selected when only the item of the notice information transmitted from the notice means is displayed, deciphering means provided in the mobile information terminal, for deciphering the corresponding notice information body on the basis of the deciphering key transmitted from the information providing terminal and charging means provided in the information providing terminal, for charging for the notice information notified to the mobile information terminal according to the request of the deciphering key from the mobile information terminal.
A charging method of the information providing system in which a mobile information terminal having a function of displaying an information on a screen by utilizing a radio wave and an information providing terminal are connected to each other through a network, comprises the steps of ciphering a notice information body to be provided to the mobile information terminal, notifying the mobile information terminal of an item of the notice information and the notice information body ciphered by the ciphering means, requesting the information providing terminal to transmit a deciphering key of the notice information corresponding to the item selected when only the item of the notice information transmitted from the notice means is displayed, deciphering the corresponding notice information body on the basis of the deciphering key transmitted from the information providing terminal and charging for the notice information notified to the mobile information terminal according to the request of the deciphering key from the mobile information terminal.
The recording medium recorded with a charging control program of the information providing system of the present invention, in which a mobile information terminal having a function of displaying an information on a screen by utilizing a radio wave and an information providing terminal are connected to each other through a network, is a recording medium recorded with a charging control program for causing the information providing terminal to charge for an information provided to the mobile information terminal. The program performs the charging by ciphering a body of a notice information to be provided to the mobile information terminal, notifying the mobile information terminal of an item of the notice information and the ciphered notice information body, requesting the information providing terminal to transmit a deciphering key of the notice information corresponding to the item selected when only the item of the notice information transmitted from the information providing terminal is displayed, deciphering the corresponding notice information body on the basis of the deciphering key transmitted from the information providing terminal and, then, charging the notice information notified to the mobile information terminal according to the request of the deciphering key from the mobile information terminal.
That is, the information providing system of the present invention, in which there is the network between the mobile information terminal having the function of displaying an information on the screen by utilizing a radio wave and then information providing terminal, the item of the information and the ciphered information body is notified from the information providing terminal to the mobile information terminal when the circuit between the mobile information terminal and the information providing terminal is not busy.
The mobile information terminal displays only the item of the information to a user and, when the user selects a necessary information, requests the information providing terminal to transmit the deciphering key for the selected information.
Since the mobile information terminal has received the information body already when the deciphering key is requested, the information providing terminal charges for the notified information to the mobile information terminal by utilizing the request of deciphering key from the mobile information terminal.
Since the mobile information terminal has received the information body preliminarily ciphered in the information providing terminal, it is possible to reduce the waiting time from the time at which the user selects the necessary information to a time at which the user reads the information.
Further, since the information providing terminal ciphers the information body and transmits the information to the mobile information terminal during a time period in which the circuit connecting the information providing terminal to the mobile information terminal is not busy, it is possible to reduce a load of the network.
Further, since the charging for the information transmitted to the mobile information terminal is performed upon an acquirement of the deciphering key, the charging for a communication in the re-transmission of the ciphered information body is not performed and it is possible to charge the mobile information terminal according to the amount of pure data.of the information transmitted from the information providing terminal to the mobile information terminal.